1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to line splicing tools, and more specifically to a machine for splicing laid and braided lines.
2. Description Of The Related Art
Laid and braided line is employed for a wide range of purposes in practicing many different arts. The use and manipulation of such line is, perhaps, most advanced in the nautical arts; but, such line is extensively used in ranching, in binding loads and moving cargo, in various sports such as rock climbing and in many other arts, as well. Splicing laid and braided line has always presented difficulties, thus various devices have been developed to aid in this task. Such devices generally permit one to raise a strand in the standing part of the line, thus creating a localized channel therethrough. Once unlaid, it is then an easy matter to tuck one or more strands of the line's end through the channel in performing a splice. In some cases, as when working with laid line and forming a simple transverse channel therethrough, a common fid or marlinespike may work sufficiently well to unlay the line. However, the tuck is greatly facilitated if the tool used is able to hold the channel open for easy receipt of the line's end as it is tucked through. For this purpose, a tool such as my Rope Splicing Fid disclosed in my 1973 U.S. Design Pat. No. D227,852, and in my 1974 U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,535, works satisfactorily. The tool of said patent includes a tubular handle with a removable tip; this tip is removed once the tool is forced between the lays. The handle of the tool remains in place, thereby forming a channel transverse to the axis of the line. The tuck is then easily accomplished by passing the line's end through the tool's tubular handle, and thereafter withdrawing the handle from between the lays. However, hard laid line is very difficult to work with this and other more conventional tools. And, in performing more complex splices wherein several consecutive tucks of a single strand end is required or, in working braided and double braided line wherein the splicing operation requires the formation of an axial channel in the line's standing part, it is more troublesome to create and maintain the proper channel or channels and more positive control of the line end is necessary. The rigid and flexible fids discussed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,750 issued in 1978 present a partial solution to these challenges. The rigid fid therein has a rear aperture into which a taped-up line end is tucked; the fid and trailing line end are then driven through the line's standing part with a pusher to create an axial channel therein. This is a cumbersome and time-consuming operation. The flexible fid comprises a length of thin cable which is smooth and blunt on one end and which has a hook projecting from the other. This flexible fid is used by setting its hook into a knot in a line's end and by binding the device, with thread and tape, into axial relation to the line. Then, it is used to guide the end as necessary in performing a splice. Despite their utility, these fids have limitations, one being that they always have a bulky line end trailing behind them. This presents difficulty, for example, in milking the fid and trailing line end through an axial channel in braided line. And, braided line, as is used in the sheath and core of double braided line, is hollow. When bent, this hollow structure causes such line to flatten, which makes it difficult to guide such fids therethrough. And, regarding the flexible fid, once the line end has been drawn through to its final position, the end with the fid is simply severed therefrom and the splice is trimmed, as usual. However, to reuse the fid, there remains the burdensome task of detaching it from the severed line end.
In addition to dealing with the above-noted difficulties, the experienced splicer knows that splicing requires dynamic hand manipulation of the line and that it would be very advantageous to be able to use both hands in this operation instead of using one hand a great deal of the time to manipulate the splicing tool. Thus, it appears that a need exists for a splicing apparatus able to free the splicer's hands, as well as to permit the splicer to work laid line of any type efficiently, even where several tucks are necessary. It would also be beneficial if such apparatus permitted one to work braided and double braided lines, and to pass a line end easily along an axial channel therethrough, without the need to tape the line's end, nor to bind the line's end so firmly to the tool.